Top Afghan Challenger Accepts Vote Inquiry

By AMY WALDMAN and CARLOTTA GALL

Published: October 12, 2004

The main challenger to President Hamid Karzai said Monday that he had accepted a proposal by the United Nations and the American ambassador to start an independent inquiry into complaints of electoral fraud.

The challenger, Yunus Qanooni, was among 15 presidential candidates who have cried foul over the conduct of the election on Saturday, citing in particular the failure of an ink marker system to prevent multiple voting. But in a news briefing at his home on Monday evening, he announced his assent to the formation of an independent commission to investigate the charges and said that he did not want to denigrate what was a historic event.

''We want the feelings and happiness of the people to be appreciated; we don't want to boycott,'' he said. ''We have proved that the interests of the people are more important than other interests.''

Three other candidates -- including Satar Sirat, who initially announced that Mr. Karzai's rivals would not recognize the result as legitimate -- have also signaled that they would be satisfied by an impartial inquiry.

Still, both Mr. Qanooni and Mr. Sirat maintained their allegations of election fraud. Mr. Sirat said there had been a number of complaints from witnesses in the capital and the provinces of fraud -- in particular the behavior of candidates' representatives in the polling stations -- that brought into doubt the legitimacy of the vote.

Mr. Qanooni said he would wait for the results of the investigation before making any further decision on the election. He said if there was a true count, he was confident he would win.

On Monday, an Election Day survey financed by the United States Agency for International Development showed that Mr. Karzai had received a very strong majority of votes, leading his next closest rival, Mr. Qanooni, by more than 40 percentage points, the survey's organizers said.

The poll, which was conducted on behalf of the International Republican Institute, a nonprofit group based in Washington, was based on the results of 10,500 surveys -- about half the total distributed. The institute, though not officially tied to the Republican Party, has several senior Republican lawmakers and officials on its governing board, including Senator John McCain of Arizona and Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, and Representative David Dreier of California.

The field work was conducted by the Afghan Media Resource Center in 26 of Afghanistan's 34 provinces, and in Pakistan, where many Afghan refugees were voting.

The results seemed to indicate that Mr. Karzai, who has been strongly supported by the Bush administration and other Western governments, would be able to avoid a runoff vote. Official election results are not expected for another two or three weeks, officials said.

Mr. Qanooni declined to comment on the survey, and he said that he would wait to see the actual ballot count.

The survey indicated that Muhammad Mohaqeq would place third, with support from about 5 percent of those polled.

The survey drew on an unusually large sample size because of the difficulty in drawing an accurate sample given the lack of census data or previous electoral experience.

Photo: Yunus Qanooni, seated, said at a news conference at his home in Kabul that he agreed to an inquiry into charges of electoral fraud. (Photo by Tyler Hicks/The New York Times)